A mathematical model to evaluate the role of agility enablers and criteria in a manufacturing environment

Modern manufacturing arena necessitates the need for responsiveness by practicing agile manufacturing (AM) principles. AM imposes the transformation of the manufacturing organisation so as to respond to dynamic market changes. This article focuses towards the application of graph theory (GT) for conceptual modelling the agile system and to compute the dependencies among the individual agile enabler, criteria and attributes as a top-down approach. Using GT approach, digraphs were systematically constructed for agile enablers and variable permanent matrix values were computed for different scenarios and the relative importance of agility enablers were determined. The permanent values of ‘Management responsibility’ enabler and technology enabler are found to be 920 (minimum) and 3529?×?10¹⁴, respectively for the existing situation, whereas for the practically base case situation, it was found to be 1185 (minimum) and 5081.17?×?10¹⁴ (maximum), respectively. The Comprehensive Agility Index was found to be 1.3996?×?10⁴⁵, which can be even used to benchmark with other best-in-class agile organisations.     

A closed loop outsourcing decision model for developing effective manufacturing strategy

The case study deals with aligning production capacity for a US manufacturer of industrial thermal transfer bench-top printer, by exploring various insourcing and outsourcing options based on production, cost and delivery capabilities. A modelling framework is devised which aids in selecting an effective manufacturing strategy that considers key enablers and barriers to successful outsourcing. The proposed model is closed loop, which stresses regular re-evaluation of the existing outsourcing strategy. It models the total product cost for the product currently being manufactured in the US and compares the total costs if it were manufactured offshore in countries such as, Malaysia, China, Slovakia and Mexico. The analysis from the model shows moving manufacturing of the product to Mexico results in the largest business benefit of about $400 savings per unit compared to other countries studied. A closer look at China in the future could be considered as the economic, social and security risks may change enough to warrant re-evaluation of this option. To get a clearer picture of how Mexico rates against Malaysia in the existing state, these risks may be reviewed as an extra data point to finalise the decision to move manufacturing of industrial thermal transfer bench-top printers to Mexico.     

Offshore Software Maintenance Outsourcing Process Model Validation: A Case Study Approach

The successful execution and management of Offshore Software Maintenance Outsourcing (OSMO) can be very beneficial for OSMO vendors and the OSMO client. Although a lot of research on software outsourcing is going on, most of the existing literature on offshore outsourcing deals with the outsourcing of software development only. Several frameworks have been developed focusing on guiding software system managers concerning offshore software outsourcing. However, none of these studies delivered comprehensive guidelines for managing the whole process of OSMO. There is a considerable lack of research working on managing OSMO from a vendor’s perspective. Therefore, to find the best practices for managing an OSMO process, it is necessary to further investigate such complex and multifaceted phenomena from the vendor’s perspective. This study validated the preliminary OSMO process model via a case study research approach. The results showed that the OSMO process model is applicable in an industrial setting with few changes. The industrial data collected during the case study enabled this paper to extend the preliminary OSMO process model. The refined version of the OSMO process model has four major phases including (i) Project Assessment, (ii) SLA (iii) Execution, and (iv) Risk.     

Supply chain resilience: model development and empirical analysis

The purpose of this study is to develop a hierarchy-based model for supply chain resilience (SCRES), explaining the dynamics between various enablers and validating the model empirically. Literature review and a survey identified the enablers. Interpretive structural modelling (ISM) is used to analyse the levels of relationships among enablers. Based on their driving power and dependence, these enablers are also classified into different categories. Structural equation modelling is used to validate the hierarchical SCRES model and test the path analytical model. The study provides empirical justification for a framework that identifies 13 key enablers of resilient supply chain practices and describes the relationship among them using ISM. It also classifies them using Matrix of Cross Impact Multiplications Applied to Classification analysis on the basis of their driver power and dependence. The key finding is that using the proposed model, organisations can enhance their resilience potential by modifying their strategic assets. The model was tested using rigorous statistical tests including convergent validity, discriminant validity and reliability. The holistic view offered by the proposed model depicts the relationship among enablers to achieve SCRES.     

Innovation capability in Australian manufacturing organisations: an exploratory study

This paper reports on the results of a comparative case study of innovation capability in Australian manufacturing companies. Following a review of the salient literature in the field, six case studies were undertaken with organisations having a degree of variance across company size, ownership type and industry sector. All the cases reflected a history of successful innovation and the managers were interviewed about the attributes of innovation and the ways in which sustained innovation was manifested in their organisations. Based on the interview data, a model of innovation capability was developed with a view to identifying attributes common to systematic and sustained innovation. These companies derived competitive advantage from differentiation through their innovation. The implications of the model for manufacturing organisations in general, and their managers in particular, are subsequently discussed.     

Management practices of Australian manufacturing firms: why are some firms more innovative?

Whilst many studies have focused on the adoption of individual or sets of innovative management practices (e.g. lean production), fewer studies have evaluated a diverse set of management practices and firm contextual factors which may limit (or enable) the accumulation of groups of innovations in organisations. The Australian manufacturing sector is a novel setting to investigate such issues due to, among other reasons, a protracted decline of the competitive position of the sector. In this paper, we use a data-set from the Australian government funded management practices benchmarking project which was part of the World Management Survey and empirically evaluate why some companies have more innovative management practices than others. The conceptual model developed draws mainly on innovation diffusion theory and prior empirical findings. We find that (1) firms which adopt clusters of better management practices have greater performance; and (2) several firm characteristics explain the adoption of better management practices, such as education level of employees and managers, firm size, ownership by a multinational firm, and diffused ownership structure. The study has practical implications for policy-makers and stakeholders who are interested in supporting the adoption of better management practices by firms to enhance productivity in the manufacturing sector.     

Technology transfer,outsourcing, capability and performance: A comparison of foreign and local firms in Ghana

Owing to intense competition in today's business environment, organisations that aspire to excel in their respective sectors need to develop the appropriate capabilities in order to gain and sustain a competitive edge. Outsourcing and technology transfer provide firms with the platform for developing capability to achieve superior performance in the marketplace. However, in the setting of a developing economy, the relative effects of outsourcing and technology transfer on corporate performance among foreign and local companies when investigated together in an amalgamated model is yet to be examined empirically. To obtain a deeper understanding, two pathways through which outsourcing and technology transfer enhance corporate performance of companies in Ghana are presented. Results of this research indicate differences in the extent to which outsourcing and technology transfer influence capability and subsequently affect corporate performance. Limitations of this study as well as implications of the findings for managers and researchers are ultimately highlighted.     

Application of interpretive structural modelling and structural equation modelling for analysis of sustainable manufacturing factors in Indian automotive component sector

Sustainable manufacturing practices are essential for automotive component manufacturing organisations to ensure competitive advantage. The interrelation between sustainability enablers' namely economic prosperity, environment well-being, social well-being, performance management and research and development need to be analysed for deriving practical insights. Theoretical model development of enablers using interpretive structural modelling (ISM) has been statistically verified using measurement models and structural model of partial least square, structural equation modelling (SEM). In this context, this article presents a combined ISM and SEM approach for building the models with the help of experts for automotive component manufacturing organisation. The measurement and structural model are constructed based on survey among 70 practitioners from automotive component manufacturing organisations in Southern India. The research hypotheses have been formulated to verify the relationship and are analysed. The results of the study indicated that the usage of ISM is very powerful to establish structural relationship between sustainable manufacturing enablers and there exist structural relationship between the enablers.     

Outsourcing in non-developed supplier markets: a lean thinking approach

The benefits organisations can gain from outsourcing include cost savings and higher levels of innovation. On the other hand, outsourcing drawbacks include potential operations and performance issues such as capability and capacity problems. Some large organisations are pursuing the practice of outsourcing, more specifically, targeting global outsourcing from developing and low-wage countries. However, the perception of expected cost saving benefits when outsourcing to low-wage countries does not always reflect reality. A number of companies have failed to achieve the expected cost savings in sourcing from low-wage countries due to operational-level capability. The objective of this study is to develop an extended evaluation method that takes into account operational-level influence factors, in addition to the procurement factors, in the context of non-developed supplier markets. Our extended evaluation method of potential suppliers addressed the paradigm of ‘standard industry recipes’, by encompassing operational-level influence factors and integrating supplier value stream analysis into the evaluation and selection process of outsourcing. A survey was distributed to 369 international manufacturers. Operational levels were categorised into seven latent constructs: Customer Service/Sales, Purchasing, Production Planning and Control, Manufacturing Engineering, Shop Floor and Quality Control, Receiving and Shipping. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) confirmed the seven constructs, but measuring items were reduced from 39 to 23 significant observed measuring items, compromising the supplier selection framework. Our proposed framework will help practitioners make better informed decisions in outsourcing from non-developed supplier markets.     

The role of political risk in service offshoring entry mode decisions

This research investigates the effect of political risk on the offshore service industry. The study empirically examines how an extended political risk definition, operationalised into a model consisting of 12 political risk variables, helps predict location decisions across offshoring entry modes and activity types. The research focuses on captive offshoring and offshore outsourcing entry modes, and Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) activity types. The research indicated that political risk factors accounted for 38% of the variability in offshore outsourcing flows, implying that concerns about service disruptions and/or cost implications of external uncertainties feature as a key factor in supplier selection and location decisions. The findings further confirm a positive relationship between institutional and regulatory factors in host locations, and the flow of offshoring activities with a high knowledge content. The research contributes to enhancing the explanatory ability of Transaction Cost Economics by re-operationalising the concept of political risk in the context of both offshore outsourcing and captive offshoring. For practitioners, these findings provide a clear indication of the political risks that can affect service offshoring decisions; for policymakers, they highlight the importance of strengthening institutional and regulatory factors to attract investment.     

Product and process modularity: improving flexibility and reducing supplier failure risk

As the dependence on suppliers intensifies, companies can adopt product and process modularity to reduce the potential negative effects of supply disruptions. Indeed, enabling manufacturing postponement can provide firms with a prompt response; by reducing the complexity of the system and allowing for easier configuration of the production process, the negative impact of a supply disruption, such as supplier failure, can be absorbed. This study provides a framework that relates the adoption of postponement enablers (i.e. product modularity and process modularity) to the reduction of the negative impact of a supply disruption. We attempt to determine whether the direct effect can be explained by the impact of these practices on companies’ flexibility. Based on data collected from 54 Italian manufacturing companies, we show that the adoption of manufacturing postponement enablers directly reduces the negative impact of the occurrence of supplier failure. Furthermore, we show that this relationship can only be partially explained by an indirect path through companies’ flexibility.     

Social sustainable supplier evaluation and selection: a group decision-support approach

Organisational and managerial decisions are influenced by corporate sustainability pressures. Organisations need to consider economic, environmental and social sustainability dimensions in their decisions to become sustainable. Supply chain decisions play a distinct and critical role in organisational good and service outputs sustainability. Sustainable supplier selection influences the supply chain sustainability allowing many organisations to build competitive advantage. Within this context, the social sustainability dimension has received relatively minor investigation; with emphasis typically on economic and environmental sustainability. Neglecting social sustainability can have serious repercussions for organisational supply chains. This study proposes a social sustainability attribute decision framework to evaluate and select socially sustainable suppliers. A grey-based multi-criteria decision-support tool composed of the ‘best-worst method’ (BWM) and TODIM (TOmada de Decisão Interativa e Multicritério – in Portuguese ‘Interactive and Multicriteria Decision Making’) is introduced. A grey-BWM approach is used to determine social sustainability attribute weights, and a grey-TODIM method is utilised to rank suppliers. This process is completed in a group decision setting. A case study of an Iranian manufacturing company is used to exemplify the applicability and suitability of the proposed social sustainability decision framework. Managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions are introduced after the application of the model.     

Learning Paths to Offshore Outsourcing: From Cost Reduction to Knowledge Seeking

A corporation's offshore outsourcing may be seen as the result of a discrete, strategic decision taken in response to an increasing pressure from worldwide competition. However, empirical evidence of a representative cross-sector sample of international Danish firms indicates that offshore sourcing in low-cost countries is best described as a learning-by-doing process in which the offshore outsourcing of a corporation goes through a sequence of stages towards sourcing for innovation. Initially, a corporation's outsourcing is driven by a desire for cost minimization. Over a period of time the outsourcing experience lessens the cognitive limitations of decision-makers as to the advantages that can be achieved through outsourcing in low-cost countries: the insourcer/vendor may not only offer cost advantages, but also quality improvement and innovation. The quality improvements that offshore outsourcing may bring about evoke a realization in the corporation that even innovative processes can be outsourced.     

Owner-dominated building information modeling and lean construction in a megaproject

The integration of building information modeling (BIM) and lean construction (LC) provides a solution for the management of megaprojects. Previous studies have generally focused on the theoretical or empirical adoption of BIM and LC. Moreover, only a few studies have examined the approach of simultaneously using BIM and LC in megaprojects. Therefore, an intensive study on the application of BIM and LC in megaprojects, particularly to explore considerably effective integrated application modes of BIM and LC in megaprojects, will substantially promote the management efficiency of megaprojects. The current study describes a method that integrates owner-dominated BIM and LC that was developed in a case study. The proposed method provides a framework for all stakeholders to use BIM and LC in a megaproject dominated by the owner. The interactional relations among the owner, BIM, and LC were analyzed and positive interactions were identified. These positive interactions served as a basis for the implementation of this integrated approach in a case study and could be applied to other megaprojects. The megaproject (i.e., airport construction project) was examined to verify the performance of the developed method. Results showed that the integration of BIM and LC dominated by the owner can improve management performance and achieve high quality standard.     

快速产品与过程实现

研究了实现下一代制造的（ＮＧＭ）企业的关键使能技术－－企业间的快速产品与过程实现（ＲＰＰＲ）技术的体系结构,建立了基于过程管理系统的异地协同设计与制造的集成机制,并在实践中取得了较好的效果。     

A model for planning the product portfolio and launch timings under resource constraints

Product design is increasingly becoming a critical function in many organisations having significant impact on their performance. It aims at the selection of a near-optimal mix of products and attribute-levels to offer in the target market. The standard product portfolio planning approach has focused on selecting optimum product profiles based on part-worth utility data. However, given that product development happens in multiple stages, combining the product definition decisions with the product development feasibility will provide organisations with a more inclusive and global solution. This paper considers a resource-constrained environment with a multi-stage product development cycle and presents an approach for helping an organisation to select the definitions of products for its product portfolio and the feasible launch timings. The proposed framework will aid product managers and researchers to identify and evaluate alternative product definitions using a Mixed Integer Linear Programming model in order to determine the alternatives which best balance product features and product development.     

A framework for developing engineering design ontologies within the aerospace industry

This paper presents a framework for developing engineering design ontologies within the aerospace industry. The aim of this approach is to strengthen the modularity and reuse of engineering design ontologies to support knowledge management initiatives within the aerospace industry. Successful development and effective utilisation of engineering ontologies strongly depends on the method/framework used to develop them. Ensuring modularity in ontology design is essential for engineering design activities due to the complexity of knowledge that is required to be brought together to support the product design decision-making process. The proposed approach adopts best practices from previous ontology development methods, but focuses on encouraging modular architectural ontology design. The framework is comprised of three phases namely: (1) Ontology design and development; (2) Ontology validation and (3) Implementation of ontology structure. A qualitative research methodology is employed which is composed of four phases. The first phase defines the capture of knowledge required for the framework development, followed by the ontology framework development, iterative refinement of engineering ontologies and ontology validation through case studies and experts’ opinion. The ontology-based framework is applied in the combustor and casing aerospace engineering domain. The modular ontologies developed as a result of applying the framework and are used in a case study to restructure and improve the accessibility of information on a product design information-sharing platform. Additionally, domain experts within the aerospace industry validated the strengths, benefits and limitations of the framework. Due to the modular nature of the developed ontologies, they were also employed to support other project initiatives within the case study company such as role-based computing (RBC), IT modernisation activity and knowledge management implementation across the sponsoring organisation. The major benefit of this approach is in the reduction of man-hours required for maintaining engineering design ontologies. Furthermore, this approach strengthens reuse of ontology knowledge and encourages modularity in the design and development of engineering ontologies.     

A supply chain sustainability innovation framework and evaluation methodology

Sustainability is hinged on innovation. The importance of sustainable innovation management in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) cannot be underestimated. Studies on SSCM have emphasised the need for sustainable innovation in achieving sustainability but none provide deep insights into sustainable innovation management in SSCM implementation. This lack of research depth stimulates this study to identify and investigate criteria for sustainable supply chain management innovation advancement. This paper proposes a sustainable innovation criteria framework for investigating sustainable supply chains in manufacturing companies. To exemplify the applicability and efficiency of the proposed framework, a sample of five Indian manufacturing companies are used to evaluate and prioritise the sustainable innovation management criteria, using the ‘best–worst’ multi-criteria decision-making (BW-MCDM) model. The criteria weights for all companies from BWM are aggregated, averaged and used for ranking. The respondent managers viewed ‘financial availability for innovation’ as the most important sustainable innovation sub-criteria. The results of the study will inform industrial managers, practitioners and decision-makers on which criteria to focus on during the implementation stage, to increase sustainability in manufacturing supply chains, and further advance corporate and supply chain sustainable development. The framework may also serve as a theoretical construct for a future empirical study on sustainable supply chain innovation in the manufacturing sector. This paper sets the stage for further research in sustainable innovation practices in the manufacturing sector and its supply chains.